The bear pans were not that hard to use actually. I mixed one regular cake mix and one pound cake mix for the big bears. I coated the pan with Wilton Cake Release. The hardest part was getting the clips on to the pans to hold the two halves together. I filled them pretty full; the batter will leak out of the top and edges some so you have to put the pan on top of a cookie sheet. I also followed someone's suggestion online and did not use the heating core. The person online said it was more trouble than it was worth. I lowered the temperature to 350 degrees and baked a little longer. I forget how long it ended up taking. I kept checking them with a skewer to see when it was done in the middle. Then I followed the directions about cooling the cakes. For the mini bears and the tree stump, I used one cake mix, but lowered the amount of oil down to 2 tablespoons to make it a denser cake. I am very happy with the results from the bear pans!